In Only an Hour
by IrisSteth
Summary: A modern AU focusing on a young Bonnibel Bubblegum after her life changes forever In Only an Hour. I wanted to play around with her and Marceline's histories, origins and relationships. This is not a smut story, but an eventual Bubbline friendly relationship will develop should this continue. This is my first story, so I hope you enjoy it.


**AN:** So this fanfiction is my first. I've had a bunch of ideas but I can never see to get them down on paper. I rarely read short stories, so I was trying to make my first one at least a decent length. I have dyslexia, so while spell-check will pick up on the misspelled words, my grammar and tenses tend to change a lot, because of this I hope everything makes sense!

I don't own Adventure time or the music. This chapter can theoretically standalone in case I lose interest and never update it, but if I DO continue this it will probably involve some light bubbline. I can't imagine writing smut for this fanfiction, so if you're looking for a quick fix, seek elsewhere. I wanted to play around with Bonnibel's history by making it an AU and set in modern times.

To listen to the music that fills Bonnibel's room later on in the story, click here: watch?v=VbxgYlcNxE8 (if you are a fast reader, I suggest listening to this song now, and by the time you get to the point in the story where it matters, you should be getting to the right spot in the music itself.)

I suffer from high anxiety as well, so please note that all of my chapters will include a note in bold before the chapter begins with any possible triggers listed.

Content below is not explicit but does include the following: **Verbal Abuse, Alcohol use, Murder and Curse-words.**

(Yeah.. I know I like to start off strong. Feel free to turn away now. I do NOT want to upset anyone due to content)

Thanks for reading all of this 3 Now on to the story!

**Prolog: Meet the Bubblegums**

Bonnibel Bubblegum was an exceptionally bright child. Even as an infant she seemed to thirst for knowledge, which is probably why at eight months she began to refuse naps. She fussed and screamed whenever left alone in her crib. At first her mother ignored the behavior. It was just a phase she reasoned, but by the third nap-less week something was obviously wrong. Bonnibel's daily health was declining. Her pediatrician ran some tests, but could find nothing wrong. Their daughter was simply exhausted and needed to sleep. If it were possible for an infant to have insomnia, little Bonnibel Bubblegum had it something fierce.

Medicating a child for insomnia at so young an age was out of the question so the pediatrician recommended a list of alternatives to help get the child to sleep. A Full tummy and warm bath were first on the list, but they were already standard procedures in the Bubblegum household. So they moved on.

Bed-Time stories worked for a little while, but after a few months Bonnibel seemed to grow tired of them. It was as if she had caught on to the predictability of the narration. She seemed to know that it was the same plot, just with different names and monsters thrown in.

By her first birthday Bonnibel could only fall asleep to music. Lullaby after nursery rhyme, nursery rhyme after lullaby, her mother sang for hours each night to put the girl to sleep. Each evening, however, more and more songs were needed to put the girl to sleep. Soon her mother's voice gave out and her father began to sing instead.

These nightly serenades took a toll on the family. Both of her parents worked full time at Abraham Lincoln University. Her mother worked as an online professor from home to stay with Bonnibel, while her father made the commute each day to teach Criminal Justice courses on campus. They were exhausted, and their work performance was beginning to show it. Something had to be done.

Desperate, they bought CDs with lullabies recorded on them, but the unfamiliar and often high pitched music only seemed to upset their little princess even more. So, they began playing CD's at random. Smooth Jazz, soft rock, Boys Choir singing holiday songs.. everything, until finally something worked. They had found a cure in classical music.

Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky... you name the composure and the Bubblegum family was sure to own a CD of their masterpieces from that point on. Their little girl was finally able to fall asleep and stay that way, and they were determined to make sure that never changed.

No music was played throughout the house from that point on, except at night when Bonnibel was being put to sleep. Children's TV programming that contained music was also banned, along with all radio stations that weren't talk-news. Even toys that played music or made sounds were strictly forbidden. From then on, their little princess grew up in a house without music. She learned to read at the age of three, and occupied herself with books. She especially liked ancient myths and stories of the past. Rather than watch TV, she was left at the local libraries children's day-camp and read there while her mother worked from home. She absorbed information like a sponge. By the time she was old enough for kindergarten, they had nothing to teach her so she began first grade.

Neighbors would tell you the Bubblegum family was as sweet as their surname suggested. For years this description of them was spot on, but perfection never lasts. Sometimes everything can change in only an hour.

**Chapter 1: In Only an Hour**

Bonnibel Bubblegum had just finished the last of her extra-credit math homework when the garage door whirred into life. She had no need for to check the time. Her father always got home from the University at Nine o'clock sharp.

She had exactly five minutes to prepare for the usual night's ritual. Sliding off her desk chair she scampered for the bathroom down the hall. She quickly ran a comb through her waist length cherry-blond hair before climbing the step stool to look at herself in the mirror. She could only just see over the sink, but she thought she looked presentable enough.

Satisfied she leapt from the stool and landed with a padded-thud against the tiled floor. Her Pink-Unicorn slippers absorbed most of the sound and provided the necessary traction to ensure she didn't slip as she proceeded to bolt down a flight of wooden steps.

Her mother met her at the back door with only seconds to spare.

As her father opened the door she and her mother both spoke in rehearsed unison, "Welcome Home Daddy/Sweetie!"

Bonnibel ran to greet him like always, grasping both arms around his legs and inhaling his cinnamon scent. In return he usually lifted her up onto his shoulders and call her his little princess. Then they would all go upstairs and turn on the music she craved so much each night. But tonight was not like the others. Tonight started a new series of nights.. or more accurately of Nightmares.

As she threw her arms around her father's leg the cinnamon scent had been replaced. Her father smelled of rotten lemons. She looked up at him for his usual smile, but was instead given a scowl.

"What the fuck is she still doing up!?" His voice boomed alarming both Bonnibel and her mother.

The girl released her grip and stepped back, placing her hands over her ears as she did so. Her father had said a bad word. A word that got your mouth washed out with soap.

"She wanted to stay up to greet you.. we- we just thought" her mother stumbled placing a hand protectively on her daughter's shoulder, uncertain of her husband's sudden change.

"You just thought?! YOU THOUGHT _WHAT EXACTLY?!_ THAT OUR LITTLE GIRL SHOULD CELEBRATE HER FATHER **_LOSING HIS JOB?!"_**

Bonnibell felt her mother's hand tense. She glanced up as the same hand pushed her backwards, away from her father.

"The University?! They laid you off? You-.. you were.." her mother fumbled moving in to comfort her husband.

"DID I FUCKING STUTTER?! I WAS FIRED, GIVEN THE BOOT, HANDED MY PINK SLIP! I GAVE THOSE UNGREATFUL BASTARDS FIFTEEN YEARS OF MY LIFE AND THIS IS HOW THEY REPAY ME! FIRING ME INSTEAD OF THOSE-"

Bonibell didn't hear the rest. She took off crying. Upset by her father's temper and unsure what had gone wrong. What had she missed? Was it something she had done? No.. it must have been something else.

She ran up the steps and sought comfort in her room as her father raged on the floor below. While the walls and floor muffled their voices so she could not understand them, she could hear them arguing and detect their movements. She opened her window and searched the sky for stars.

Bonnibel thought back to last summer, when she had woken up from a bad dream and gone to her parents room. Her father had scooped her up and carried her out into the back yard. He settled in on the wet grass with her and pointed up at the stars. He showed her the different constellations, the ones she had only read about in books. Bonnibel had thought they were neat before.. but seeing them in the sky was definitely better.

_"My little princess_," she could remember her father saying said after a while, "_you shouldn't be afraid of your dreams. Look up there, that's the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major. It is the mother bear that you've read about in those myths, don't you see it? And there, next to it is the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor, her cub. She never leaves her babies side. They are forever together in the stars_,"

He paused in her memory, and Bonnibel could almost hear the crickets chirping all around them as the cicadas buzzed with the wind.

_"Bonni, we will always be here for you, and when we aren't around, the stars we will never be far. So don't be afraid. You have the stars watching over you_."

Clouds blocked out the sky. So there were no stars watching... she was alone, and she was scared.

Her train of thought was shattered as her father's shouts of profanity began to reverberate around the neighborhood through her open window. They had moved into the kitchen directly below her room. It was then Bonnibel realized she needed some place to hide, but her door had no lock, and from what she had read, hiding under the bed always ended badly.

Despite how hard she tried to drown out their voices, she could hear every word.

"You need to calm down!"

"Calm down?! Calm down! I'll fucking kill them!"

A clatter from the floor below could only mean something had fallen over.

"My god, you're drunk! What we're you thinking driving home like this?! You could have _killed_ somebody! _You could have __**killed**__ yourself_! When did you even have the time to-"

"Shut up! I don't need to hear this from you. I'm in enough pain right now without listening to your fucking nagging."

"Honey everything will be alright, you just need to calm down so we can talk about this."

"Fuck you bitch. You think you can be all high and mighty now that you're the only one with a job? They'll fire you next and then what?! We'll both be up shit creek without a fucking paddle."

The sound of sirens began in the distance. Someone had called the police about the disturbance, but Bonnibel didn't know that. All she knew was that she had to find a place to hide, but she couldn't think with all this noise.

Stumbling around her dark room she found the CD player and pressed play. Tchaikovsky 1812 overture began to play its opening soft melody throughout her room. She could finally think again.

The hallway closet! Yes that would be the best place to hide. She could snuggle in-between the winter coats and no one would find her!

She set down the hall the music working its way into her brain, signaling it was time for her to sleep. She let out a yawn as her father stomped around below and her mother began to shriek. As the sirens outside grew closer and closer, she focused only on the music. Slowly she settled into the closet and closed the door.

Bonnibel was asleep when a knock came at their front door. The music from her room finally reached its crescendo drowning out the doorbell.

The trumpets blared over the sound of her mother's horrified scream. The cannon fire masked both the gunshots that rang out in the living room, and the grandfather clock chime as it struck ten.

The CD softly began to play Mozart's Moonlight Sonata as the police finally broke down the front door and entered the house.

**AN:** And that's the end of the first chapter. I hope everything made sense. Read, but don't feel like you have to review. If you've gotten this far however, I'd love to hear what you think. I have the next chapter in mind already. It will be shorter, and I can't promise I'll update regularly once school starts, but hey at least this chapter could stand alone as a terribly sad one-shot ? (please don't hate me).


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